October 15th 2016 was the night it was all supposed to come together and it did sort of. The Apollo Awards was a new idea for many people, fans weren't really sure just how to involve themselves whether this whole thing was a practical joke or just the demented idea of a really old MC.
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| Dean Haglund & Peter Budd |
The crowd wandered in, some stopping to be photographed and chat others choosing to be just a little silly. Dean Hagland and myself doing our best two Ronnies impersonations. It was a casual start to the evening, everyone not really sure of where the night would take us or what lay in-store. Some of our presenters made an impact in other ways.
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| Lauren Stardust |
Lauren Stardust and her Enterprise hat was certainly a highlight of the red carpet. The photo doesn't do enough credit to this wondrous creation, which came complete with blinking warp narcels.
A special moment was when the creators of the Apollo Awards shared the red carpet to officially get the evening started. It had taken 9 years and a lot hard work, a lot of disappointments and many variations to finally get to this night. The night however had arrived and it was time to strap in and enjoy the ride.
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| Apollo Creators Melanie Teychenne-King and Peter Budd |
With those attending all in an seated it was time for the festivities to begin. The night opens with the new trailer created for the Apollo Awards by Lunacraft Productions. Then Dean Haglund took to the stage as the Master of Ceremonies for the night and the insanity began. The next two and a half hours was a joyous ride of laughter, silliness, mistakes and mayhem. Dean took total control, Bob Hope would have been jealous of how masterfully he handled the evening. We are sure the Oscars are beckoning. It was time to introduce the presenters and have the winners announced.
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| Tom Taylor presenting the first award. |
Our presenters were a cross section of many well known personalities from Australian fandom, from Pop Culture Expos and international renowned talent. All undertook the role with total irreverence that was needed. Several moments of hilarity ensured as minor malfunctions occurred with equipment, presentations and even some of those who were "drafted" from the audience to take part.
All the nominations and winners can be found at The Apollo Awards website: www.theapolloawards.com
So the night was now over, well sort of, no one seemed in any great hurry to leave. In fact a great deal of time and energy went into much frivolity with many grabbing awards and posing with them and other members of the audience, presenters and even random strangers.
But all to soon the news had come that everyone needed to leave and many wondered if they would see this night again or if The Apollo Awards had, had their moment to shine and would now only be remembered as a night of continual laughter and a brave attempt to give Australian fans a chance to have their say and tell the world that their thoughts and opinions were as a valid as those of anyone else anywhere in the world.
Well if the image below from the facebook and website are any indication it would appear that we will once again get to have a chance to join together for a night of high energy fun and maybe a whole lot of new ideas.
